Consensys
Basics * A for-profit shop in Brooklyn that specializes in building dapps on the Ethereum blockchain. Founded in 2014, even before the Ethereum mainnet was launched. * When the bear market of 2018 happened Consensys was often in the news due to overextension and consequent lay-offs. "When worried staffers have questioned Lubin about ConsenSys’ sustainability, Lubin has always had a pat reply: “Joe would say, ‘This is definitely not something you need to worry about. We can go on at this pace for a very, very long time,’ ” recalls Carolyn Reckhow, a former director of global operations who left ConsenSys in May 2018." * Is in merger negotiations (11-2-2020) with JP Morgan Chase and it's Quorum: "Referring to it as the JPMorgan “marquee blockchain unit,” a potential Quorum “merger with ConsenSys was chosen as the best path forward as both organizations work with Ethereum and have been involved in joint initiatives in the past.” Indeed, Quorum operates on Ethereum, and the largest US bank reportedly “has been considering spinning off Quorum for around two years, evaluating options including setting up an open-source foundation, creating a new startup or merging it with another company. Merging Quorum’s more than two-dozen staff members would be in line with its open-source ethos, and at least one person close to the talks apparently confirmed any deal with ConsenSys would maintain the Quorum brand and its open-source operations. While not formalized, a merger could see a public launch later this year, sources hinted, “but financial terms are still unclear.”" * Has many subsidiaries; Consensys Ventures, Consenys Labs, Consensys Dilligence, etc. Investments * invested $5 million in Civil last fall, has agreed to purchase $3.5 million worth of Civil's new tokens. * Is funding crypto news site Decrypt * Has an early-stage VC arm called Consensys Ventures, which in 2018 invested in the following projects: Ink Protocol , trueDigital, Dysopsis, Dada, Vault, Unlock Protocol, Starkware, Coinhouse and Tenta. * On Consensys their website (7-2019) they call their venture arm Consensys Labs "supporting entrepreneurs and developers around the world through tools, talent, and capital." The Consensys Ventures website is also not online anymore (also 7-2019). Consensys Labs already existed (12-2018) and was the division of Consensys responsible for deciding which projects would become spokes. * Has funded Gitcoin's grant program ($100.000). * led a $2.1 million funding round for Aztec in November 2019. * PoolTogether; "a $1.05 million investment round under a simple agreement for future equity. IDEO CoLab Ventures led the round; ConsenSys and DTC Capital also invested." * Consensys bought Heritage Financial Systems (4-2-2020). Consensys Ventures Basics * ConsenSys Ventures (However their website is not online anymore as of 7-2019, it could be that it has been renamed into/merged with Consensys Labs), the early-stage VC arm of ConsenSys, was officially formed in September 2017. * "2018 saw the ConsenSys Ventures portfolio nearly quadruple in size! Over the course of the year, we invested in many diverse areas across the web 3.0 stack and blockchain ecosystem, including exchanges, digital collectibles, wallets, zero knowledge cryptography, and more." * Invested in 2018 in the following projects: Ink Protocol , trueDigital, Dysopsis, Dada, Vault, Unlock Protocol, Starkware, Coinhouse and Tenta * ConsenSys Ventures' accelerator program, Tachyon 2.0, has announced (4-2-2019) ten new participants; the incubator programs will run out of Berlin and San Francisco, with each startup receiving $100K and professional development; this years round focuses on blockchain-related solutions to data privacy, encryption, healthcare, and DeFi; The selected startups are: # Blockchain-enabled DNA data bank Genomes # Energy market-focused blockchain startup Blok-Z # Protocol for self-sovereign identity Glimpse # Blockchain-backed data authenticity software maker Sensor.link # Litigation finance investment platform Lawcoin # Cryptocurrency security storage solutions provider Cypherock # Manufacturer of customized printed cryptocurrency cards Ether.cards # Smart contract and transaction security firm Sooho # Blockchain-based micro-insurance firm Ibisa # Open source protocol maker for including digital assets into links LinkDrop. Team, investors, etc. * "head Kavita Gupta is stepping down to an advisory role and a two year teaching position at Stanford; Gupta has been with the firm since its founding in September 2017, steering investments toward 40 different startups under 11 subcategories; the news comes on the heels of ConsenSys' announced funding round with a goal of $200M" Projects The company is involved in number of different projects. * Blockapps Strato which is a partnership with Microsoft Azure to build industry-specific blockchain (database) applications. * Blockstack Labs is a project with Microsoft to address human rights issues by creating identity systems on the blockchain. * BTC Relay uses the smart contract functionality in Ethereum to allow people to verify Bitcoin transactions from Ethereum’s Blockchain. * Deloitte and ConsenSys announced plans in 2016 to create a digital bank called Project ConsenSys. * Ether.camp which is an Ethereum blockchain explorer. * EtherSign is a cryptographic tool for managing and signing documents * TransActive Grid is a joint venture with L03 Energy which proposes to allow peer-to-peer electricity sales * The company is working with John Hancock Insurance on their LOFT project. * Coursera and ConsenSys launched a Blockchain Foundations course that quickly gained thousands of sign-ups, with a majority of the interest coming from the enterprise sector. * Backed Monerium; a blockchain-based e-money * A Microsoft project called Sidetree: "to address the performance and scale needs of DID systems, while maintaining the properties of decentralization and self-ownership that differentiate them from existing identity technologies. There is no simple solution to this problem—one can’t just change a variable to increase the transactional volume of these system without degrading the very attributes of decentralization that make them valuable. To tackle this challenge, we’ve been collaborating with members of the DIF, notably ConsenSys and Transmute, to develop a blockchain-agnostic protocol for creating scalable DID networks, called Sidetree" * Treum; A platform made to model and deploy supply chains 'of the future' * Is the lead partner of the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum "As the primary contractor, ConsenSys was asked to set up the Observatory platform and to provide a forum to ensure that all interested stakeholders in the European blockchain community could contribute their expertise and insights to the discussion and ensuing recommendations. The Observatory & Forum is technology agnostic and welcomes views from practitioners of both public and private distributed ledger technologies. The Forum’s working groups, consisting of 60 European blockchain thought leaders, are responsible for researching existing initiatives and identifying the potential need for EU action." * ConsenSys Codefi released (9-2019) a scoring website for DeFi projects. * Has a joint venture with Fluidity called AirSwap. * A starting member (11-2-2020) of the Ethereum Trust Alliance. * Sponsors Week In Ethereum. Consensys Labs Basics * Used to be the division of Consensys responsible for deciding which projects become spokes (12-2018). But as of 7-2019 it is listed as "The venture arm of Consensys, supporting entrepreneurs and developers around the world through tools, talent, and capital. The Labs team invests through Tachyon, a growth accelerator program for early-stage blockchain projects, and through strategic pre-seed and seed stage investments in Ethereum-based projects across the Web 3.0 stack." ''This might indicate that Consensys Labs has merged with or taken over Consensys Ventures (which website is down as of 7-2019). Tachyon it's website is also down though, so maybe they are just experiencing problems with their websites. Portfolio The portfolio is huge with here some notable mentions as of 7-2019: * Adhara, AirSwap, Aztec Protocol, BlockApps, BlockFi, Civil, Coinhouse (was also on the list for Consensys Ventures), Gitcoin, Gnosis, Grid+, Infura, Kaleido, Kauri, Lawcoin, MetaMask, PegaSys, Tenta (was also on the list for Consensys Ventures), Treum, Ujo, uPort and Vault Team, etc * Big team, all names to be found here * Ron Garrett, Managing Partner & head of ConsenSys Labs * Shawn Cheng; partner Spokes Has so called ‘Spokes’; The Consensys website used (12-2018) to have a subsection about their spokes model. This has been removed since the bear market that happened afterwards. Consensys did say they would 'clean house' so maybe their spokes have taken a hit. Consensys Labs decides who can become a spoke. * Blockchain startup Adhara, a Consensys venture, which boasts a stellar line-up of former banking innovators, has secured $15 million in new funding from Consensys. Adhara grew out of Consensys South Africa, with Peter Munnings, former head of blockchain at FirstRand Bank in South Africa, as one of the co-founders. The other two co-founders are also heavy hitters: Julio Faura, Santander's former blockchain lead, and Edward Budd, former chief digital officer at Deutsche Bank. * Airswap; a platform that makes it easy to find, price and trade tokens peer-to-peer on Ethereum * Alethio, Considered a core component of Consenys. A blockchain analytics platform providing insights to startups, projects, enterprises and empowering the community. * Balanc3; a distributed ledger system and shared data environment for triple-entry accounting and financial audit reporting * “The Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC) is a ConsenSys project focused on exploring and initiating ways for blockchain to influence, improve, and empower disenfranchised people, harmful markets, and social ills. “ * Boardroom * Bounties Network; freelance task fulfilment paying out in any Ethereum token upon successful completion * Cellarius; a transmedia storytelling franchise for users to create a collaborative, fan-curated universe on the blockchain * Civil; a platform for sustainable and trustworthy journalism using open . governance and cryptoeconomics * Consensys academy, an initiative by ConsenSys to bring awareness to the Ethereum network and educate, train, and grow the developer community. * DAOWars is a project where human players design autonomous agents to outfight and outwit other agents created by competitors * dAppstore * Dilligence; ConsenSys Diligence is committed to improving and protecting the Ethereum ecosystem by facilitating technical excellence, security guidelines, legal precautions, and ethical business practices. * EtherEx * Etherloan * EtherPoker * EtherSign * Fathom, a decentralized protocol for creating and assessing credentials through the consensus of knowledge communities. * Frontier; a decentralized platform for curated fundamental token research and analysis * Gitcoin; scales open source proects using incentivization mechanics to crowdsource tasks, recruit talent and improve projects * Governx; a governance platform for creating and managing complex decentralized and distributed organizations * Grid+; leverages the public Ethereum blockchain to give consumers direct access to wholesale energy markets. * GroupGnosis is a platform for prediction markets * HunchGame * Inflekt * Justasec.XYZ * Linnia; a platform for consumers to store and permission access to their longitudial health data in order to live their best life * Liquality; a disintermediated network to swap cross-chain, peer to peer * Meridio; a blockchain platform for shared property ownership for investing in a simple and accessible way * Kauri; a decentralized technical support network to serve developers at all levels and organizations * Kaleido; an all-in-one enterprise SaaS platform that radically simplifies the creation and operation of private blockchains. * Omega One; a decentralized, automated trade execution platform * Openlaw; Considered a core component of Consenys. A blockchain-based protocol for the creation and execution of legal agreements in a user-friendly, compliant way. * Trustology; a custody platform to safe guard crypto assets, with customisable smart accounts for diverse client needs * Truset; a decentralised marketplace to crowdsource the collection, cleansing and distribution of capital markets reference data * Ujo Music. Imogen Heap used the technology with her single Tiny Human. * Variabl; a derivatives trading platform on Ethereum that matches traders in secure zero-sum smart contracts * Viant; a platform for modeling business processes, tracking assets and building supply chains for the future. * Virtue Poker; a peer-to-peer community poker platform built on trust, transparency and provably fair gaming * WeiFund Core Components Has so called ‘Core Components’ which “are essential elements of our dApps, platforms, and other solutions”; The Consensys website used (12-2018) to have a subsection about their core components model. This has been removed since the bear market that happened afterwards. Consensys did say they would 'clean house' so maybe their core components have taken a hit. * Benefactory * BlockApps * BTC Relay; Developer tools by Consensys * Ethereumjs-accounts * ethereumH * ethereumJ: The Java Ethereum Client * INFURA; Infrastructure by Consenys * LightWallet * MetaMask; Considered a core component of Consenys * Nethereum; Developer tools by Consensys * Pegasys; infrastructure by Consensys. A protocol engineering team exploring Enterprise Ethereum environments for private chain use cases. * ProvID * Regis * RepSys * Rhombus; connects smart contracts with computable real-world data * Stabl * Truffle; Developer tools by Consensys * uPort is an Ethereum blockchain-based identity management system. Considered a core component of Consenys Partnerships Has so called ‘Partnerships”; * Microsoft; have partnered to offer Ethereum Blockchain as a Service on Microsoft Azure so enterprise clients and developers can have a single-click cloud-based blockchain developer environment. * LO3, via TransActive Grid which is a joint venture of LO3 and ConsenSys * Innogy Inovation Labs/Co-Tricity * SingularDTV, Dysopsis, trueDigital * Ubuntu (to ‘release’ Ethereum) * partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to develop and open source software prototypes for decentralized interbank payment and settlements with liquidity savings mechanisms called Project Ubin. * partnered with Union Bank of the Philippines to build a closed-loop crypto-cash solution for rural banks in the Philippines on Kaleido, an all-in-one enterprise SaaS platform called Project i2i * Project Khoka. In a consortium with seven commercial banks, the South African Reserve Bank conducted a proof-of-concept trial with Quorum, an enterprise-grade implementation of Ethereum, to process the typical daily volume of payments with full confidentiality and finality in less than two hours. Adhara, a ConsenSys venture, is building a multi-currency liquidity management and international payments platform to optimize banks’ capital deployment, manage risk, and leverage liquidity effectively and globally. * Project Endor. ConsenSys recently partnered with capital raising platform CapBridge on Project Endor with the aim of developing a fully compliant securities exchange on the public Ethereum blockchain. * ConsenSys Social Impact recently partnered with Luxarity, the social venture arm of Hong Kong fashion retail brand Lane Crawford, to register resold luxury goods on the blockchain so donors can track charitable proceeds. * Minerac, a joint venture between ConsenSys and the metal concentrates trade platform Open Mineral, is an Ethereum-based consortium of mining companies and financial institutions which both eases and secures the exchange of critical trade documents such as bills of lading and letters of credit across different jurisdictions. * Was named government department Smart Dubai’s blockchain partner. * Partnered with Dubai Properties to build a blockchain platform for tracking the provenance of real estate from planning and construction to customer sale using cryptographically secure digital signatures. Meridio, a ConsenSys venture that spun out of the engagement with Dubai Properties, converts individual properties into digital shares on the Ethereum blockchain. Accredited investors can purchase tokens on the Meridio platform — which represent fractional shares of properties — and reap a proportionate amount of rental income. Meridio’s Ethereum-based real estate marketplace exposes asset owners to a diverse pool of investors so owners can access capital, streamline transaction processing, and analyze asset-specific data in real time. Investors benefit from low capital requirements, reduced transaction fees, and increased portfolio liquidity. * Ondiflo is a joint venture between ConsenSys and Amalto, a B2B integration leader for the oil and gas industry, which aims to provide bespoke, enterprise-grade blockchain solutions to oil and gas companies in the upstream, downstream, and midstream segments. Since its launch in February 2018, Ondiflo has focused on two solutions: 1) consortium-building between oil and gas stakeholders and 2) a platform for all ticketing-based services to ease reconciliation around identity, certification, field capture errors, data sanitation, and financial settlement. * The Accounting Blockchain Coalition is an initiative started by ConsenSys’ Balanc3 team that includes accounting associations, standards-setting bodies, regulators, law firms, investors, and blockchain innovators. The Coalition is driving innovation in the accounting industry and also educating businesses and organizations on accounting for blockchain-based digital assets. * Kaleido, a ConsenSys venture, has radically simplified blockchain adoption for enterprises with their Blockchain Business Cloud, the first full-stack platform for the entire Enterprise Ethereum journey. This past spring, Kaleido partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) so enterprises can run the Kaleido platform on AWS and seamlessly connect to Amazon’s other analytics, rich query, monitoring, and storage services. * New-York based blockchain startup Civil announced it is issuing an $8M refund to its 3000 ICO investors; this comes after Civil failed to meet it $18M threshold and ultimately about 80% of Civil’s ICO funds, or $1.1M, came from ConsenSys; ConsenSys recently recommitted $3.5M to the Civil Foundation "which will be used to fund existing grants to the 14 initial newsrooms as well as overhead" * Initial member of International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) * Is a partner of Helena Has so called “non-prof Affiliations”; * Smart Contracts Foundation * Ethereum Foundation * Cryptocurrency Research Group * Code To Inspire Team, etc. * Lubin, Joseph; founder * Cassatt, Sam; former CSO ''"Cassatt is stepping down ''(15-11-2019) ''to launch a new venture fund, Aligned Capital, with the backing of ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin. ConsenSys said Cassatt will stay on with the ethereum venture studio in an advisory capacity." * Gutterman, Amanda; CMO * Jeremy Millar; Chief of Staff * Rouven Heck, head of DID at ConsenSys and active member of the W3C * Ward, Jeff Scott, left in 2018 * Andrew Keys, former head of global business development, left (6-6-2019) to join DARMA Capital. Still an advisor * Marc Ziade; Co-Founder of Frontier and Strategy Director at ConsenSys * Bob Summerwill, former developer / senior figure * Coogan Brennan; Consensys Acadamy * Jérôme de Tychey * Nicolas Liochon * Austin Griffith; research director * James Salazas; former executive now managing partner DARMA Capital * David Hoover; also advisor to Flexacoin * Vanessa Grellet; The company’s Executive Director of Enterprise and Social Impact * Chris Wessels * Ameen Soleimani; alum (now CEO of Spankchain) * Kendall Cole; used to work here, but now (2-2020) product manager at Near Protocol * Among the employees are former alumni of Bank of America, the New York Stock Exchange, and Deutsche Bank * The issue of sharing ConsenSys’ equity among its 1,200 employees has become a running joke. Former employees report that for a long time Lubin was evasive and the plan was always “six weeks away,” if you asked him. In fact, the first set of 100 employees or so received their equity in early 2017, and nearly two years later, ConsenSys says, it’s still working on a plan to give its larger workforce a stake in the company. Update 7-2019: Former ConsenSys employees who spoke with CoinDesk say the umbrella organization is poised to address equity distribution after numerous complaint; of the seven anonymous former employees interviewed, four said equity deals were mismanaged with six stating company politics had led to unfair distribution; CoinDesk writes founder Joe Lubin''' 'is seeking to sell 10% of his equity to an outside party Team size, growth and lay-offs * As they themselves claim: ''"ConsenSys is not a traditional company. Though we are united in our effort to build out Web3, we do not have a monolithic master brand. We are a network of peers working autonomously and asynchronously, yet we stay accountable to one another. Sometimes we call ourselves a self-organizing system, a kind of organism. ConsenSys is now a 1000+ person experiment in self-organization." In 17 offices. Much of that growth was funded by Lubin himself, who is said to be the world’s single largest holder of ether. * They are to lay off (2019) 13 percent of its 1.1k-member workforce; the company supports dozens of subsidiary projects built on the Ethereum network; many of them have no roadmap for profitability; CEO Joseph Lubin said earlier this week that some projects would be terminated and others would face stricter performance standards. Update: Later Consensys was to cut 50 to 60 percent of its employees. This was denied by a Consensys exec who kept the 13% number. Saying it affected support staff as well as technical staff. "ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin later stated that ConsenSys “remains healthy” and is rebalancing its priorities. He also complained about the leaks, saying that journalists and bloggers do not have real data and create a lot of panic by reporting layoffs." * As of March 2016, ConsenSys employed 68 persons worldwide. As of march 2017 it is over a 100. But grew to over 1000 people in that year. * "“Every day, it was so lax that I’d walk in and didn’t know if I had a seat. Literally, it was like Game of Thrones,” says Jeff Scott Ward, who joined ConsenSys in June 2015 and left the company in early 2018. There was one toilet for 30 people on the floor, Ward says. The company didn’t hire a human resources person for almost a year and a half. ConsenSys’ first projects, or spokes, included accounting software for cryptocurrency transactions and a blockchain-based digital-rights platform for musicians. Most of the ideas for spokes came from ConsenSys employees, and once a project was approved, Lubin would give the startup between $250,000 and $500,000 to get it off the ground." * ""A total (11-12-2019) of 11 roles were eliminated in India and the Philippines due to a realignment of the sales and services team in those countries," said ConsenSys spokesperson Kara Miley" * "When worried staffers have questioned Lubin about ConsenSys’ sustainability, Lubin has always had a pat reply: “Joe would say, ‘This is definitely not something you need to worry about. We can go on at this pace for a very, very long time,’ ” recalls Carolyn Reckhow, a former director of global operations who left ConsenSys in May." * As of (7-2-2020) by CoinDesk: "The Brooklyn, N.Y., company announced at an all-staff meeting Tuesday its latest restructuring would shrink the firm's headcount by approximately 14 percent. When asked, ConsenSys did not explain how many individuals the cuts would affect or state its current headcount." * Joseph Lubin was recently summoned to court (26-7-2019) in New York when a former employee initiated a lawsuit for more than $13 million. According to the summons stemming from former Token Foundry CEO, Harrison Hines, relief was being sought for alleged unpaid profits, fraud, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract. According to his Linkedin profile, Hines is now in charge of a startup called Terminal Systems with a few former Consensys employees working with him. Token Foundry is still seemingly a spoke startup within the Consensys hub, but is now part of Consensys Digital Securities. Category:Companies/Organisations